1. Did no Telugu director or Telugu writer ever influence you?
Ans: Dasari Narayan Rao and K.Vishwanath influenced me as directors with “Chillarakottu Chitemma” and “Siva Ranjani”, “Shankarabharanam” and “Sagara Sangamam” respectivelyt. Muppala Ranga Nayakamma the novelist influenced me tremendously through her book “Ramayana Vishavriksham”.
2. How do you prepare an actor for a character?
Ans: That can’t be really generalized. As far as Surya’s character in “Rakta Cahritra” is concerned I briefed Surya on whatever I gathered from my interactions with Suri and then we worked it out together.
3. I wish and pray that I won’t die before watching “Rakra Cahritra”.
Ans: I wish and pray that I won’t die before finishing “Rakta Charitra”.
4. Which mistakes in your life would you like to rectify?
Ans: There are no such things as mistakes in life. Everything we do both add and subtract things from our life depending on various contexts and various times.
5. I loved Heath Ledger as the Joker in “dark Knight”.
Ans: I preferred Jack Nicholson as the Joker in “Batman”.
6. Do you think Bala Vaakku is Brahmma Vaakku?
Ans: Yeah. As both Bala and Brahmma are equally juvenile, no need to listen to either of their vaakkus.
7. Despite your explanations the interviewers always distort your views. Don’t you get irritated?
Ans: I gave up getting irritated a long time back and the same applies to many of you bloggers here. In spite of my prolonged and repeated explanations many of you get a very distorted understanding.
8. What will be the title of your autobiography if you ever write one?
Ans: “I”
9. Is it true that you are going to make a film on Godmen called “God and Sex”?
Ans: Yes. Most Swamis in the country are looked up to as Gods and yet from time to time, many of them get exposed in one way or the other of their true nature.
GOD and SEX is going to be a hard look at the world of God-men and not only their sexual escapades but also about how these so-called representatives of God continue to con gullible devotees to satisfy their various and very diverse needs which could be of power, money, political brokerage etc.
Inspired from a recent sex scandal involving one such popular Swami, GOD AND SEX will once and for all, explore, examine and put on record everything that goes on behind the closed quarters of the God-man and his men.
10. Why is that in beauty contests sexy girls in bikini’s talk about world peace, poverty, Aids and orphaned kids?
Ans: That’s because all the concerned people know very well that people in general are least interested in poverty, hunger and various other problems of the world but they will be all attention for sex and beauty. So they use the woman’s beauty and sex appeal to sell those non-interesting issues by making the women feel guilty for the assets they have and they compel them to use their beauty and sexuality for altruistic purposes. In the process we common folk also can enjoy their beauty and sexuality and we can tell others and ourselves that we are also doing it for altruistic purposes.
11. “One can only see what one observes and one observes only things which are already in the mind”. – Alphonse Bertillon.
Ans: “Man has no ears for what experience has not given him an access to. If he agrees to something he knows it already”. – Friedrich Nietzsche.
12. Stanley Kubrick said, “If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed”.
Ans: I don’t agree. A writing and a thought can evoke an emotion which many times will be not possible for a film to capture.
Will give some random examples to illustrate the above point of mine.
(a). “I was standing at the edge of the cliff road with a body at my feet. You don’t need to study medicine to know how the man had died. He died of a cardiac arrest which was caused due to a thin blade of steel passing through his heart. I wasn’t too anxious to call a doctor as at the time the blade was passing through his heart the handle happened to be in my hands”. – An excerpt from a Desmond Bagley novel.
(b). “Keegan’s Bar was a notorious place near the waterfront. Everyone was afraid of the bouncers at Keegan’s Bar. Sometimes foolhardy sailors under the influence of alcohol tried to tangle with them and after a severe beating returned to their ships wiser and more prudent men”. – An excerpt from a James Hadley Chase novel.
13. Are you really practicing lack of fear in your life? It needs tremendous guts.
Ans: It’s not guts, Vaishak. You just need understanding. I have always had it ever since I took a decision in life to understand rather than to react. The problem with most is that to understand. They reflect when they need to absorb.
14. What do you mean that Satyendra is nothing but a thought?
Ans: “When someone influences you heavily he stays in your head as a permanent thought. Even if he as a person is not there, his thoughts will keep motivating you”. – Crazy Kiran.
15. “We don’t know what we don’t know”. – Richard Williams
Ans: “We know what we think we know”. – RGV
16. To me the greatest philosophy is “whatever makes you happy”.
Ans: True, except that you should take care that whatever makes you happy should not have been programmed into you.
17. Greatness is not a bead. It’s a garland of beads.
Ans: I would say it’s a chain of beads.
18. Why would you want to be a villain in Fountainhead rather than as a hero like Howard Roark?
Ans: To be a villain with the understanding of a hero is the best way to have the cake and eat it too.
19. Which do you prefer between Stanley Kubricks “Lolita” and Adrian Lyne’s “Lolita”?
Ans: Stanley Kubrick’s version is not a patch on Adriane’s.
20. “If most people said what’s on their minds, they’d be speechless”. – Mad magazine.
Ans: Suuuuuuuuuperrrrb.
21. Just by dismissing my comments and ridiculing me does not prove a point and you owe me some respect.
Ans: Teja, it might surprise you but the fact is that I have seen more books on philosophy between 1980 to 1984 (that is when me and Satyendra were in college) than what I saw for the rest of my life. These I saw in our College library and in Satyendra’s room. None of the students at College used to touch or look at them in the racks except Satyendra. I used to dabble with them once in a while because of my association and proximity with Satyendra.
Satyendra’s existence is important to me and not necessarily for anyone else. He has chosen to live his life within himself and I respect his privacy. But because I for some wrong or right reasons brought him out onto a public platform I just felt an urge to protect him and hence I got irritated with you.
I sincerely apologize for going overboard in ridiculing you. Sorry!
Ans: Dasari Narayan Rao and K.Vishwanath influenced me as directors with “Chillarakottu Chitemma” and “Siva Ranjani”, “Shankarabharanam” and “Sagara Sangamam” respectivelyt. Muppala Ranga Nayakamma the novelist influenced me tremendously through her book “Ramayana Vishavriksham”.
2. How do you prepare an actor for a character?
Ans: That can’t be really generalized. As far as Surya’s character in “Rakta Cahritra” is concerned I briefed Surya on whatever I gathered from my interactions with Suri and then we worked it out together.
3. I wish and pray that I won’t die before watching “Rakra Cahritra”.
Ans: I wish and pray that I won’t die before finishing “Rakta Charitra”.
4. Which mistakes in your life would you like to rectify?
Ans: There are no such things as mistakes in life. Everything we do both add and subtract things from our life depending on various contexts and various times.
5. I loved Heath Ledger as the Joker in “dark Knight”.
Ans: I preferred Jack Nicholson as the Joker in “Batman”.
6. Do you think Bala Vaakku is Brahmma Vaakku?
Ans: Yeah. As both Bala and Brahmma are equally juvenile, no need to listen to either of their vaakkus.
7. Despite your explanations the interviewers always distort your views. Don’t you get irritated?
Ans: I gave up getting irritated a long time back and the same applies to many of you bloggers here. In spite of my prolonged and repeated explanations many of you get a very distorted understanding.
8. What will be the title of your autobiography if you ever write one?
Ans: “I”
9. Is it true that you are going to make a film on Godmen called “God and Sex”?
Ans: Yes. Most Swamis in the country are looked up to as Gods and yet from time to time, many of them get exposed in one way or the other of their true nature.
GOD and SEX is going to be a hard look at the world of God-men and not only their sexual escapades but also about how these so-called representatives of God continue to con gullible devotees to satisfy their various and very diverse needs which could be of power, money, political brokerage etc.
Inspired from a recent sex scandal involving one such popular Swami, GOD AND SEX will once and for all, explore, examine and put on record everything that goes on behind the closed quarters of the God-man and his men.
10. Why is that in beauty contests sexy girls in bikini’s talk about world peace, poverty, Aids and orphaned kids?
Ans: That’s because all the concerned people know very well that people in general are least interested in poverty, hunger and various other problems of the world but they will be all attention for sex and beauty. So they use the woman’s beauty and sex appeal to sell those non-interesting issues by making the women feel guilty for the assets they have and they compel them to use their beauty and sexuality for altruistic purposes. In the process we common folk also can enjoy their beauty and sexuality and we can tell others and ourselves that we are also doing it for altruistic purposes.
11. “One can only see what one observes and one observes only things which are already in the mind”. – Alphonse Bertillon.
Ans: “Man has no ears for what experience has not given him an access to. If he agrees to something he knows it already”. – Friedrich Nietzsche.
12. Stanley Kubrick said, “If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed”.
Ans: I don’t agree. A writing and a thought can evoke an emotion which many times will be not possible for a film to capture.
Will give some random examples to illustrate the above point of mine.
(a). “I was standing at the edge of the cliff road with a body at my feet. You don’t need to study medicine to know how the man had died. He died of a cardiac arrest which was caused due to a thin blade of steel passing through his heart. I wasn’t too anxious to call a doctor as at the time the blade was passing through his heart the handle happened to be in my hands”. – An excerpt from a Desmond Bagley novel.
(b). “Keegan’s Bar was a notorious place near the waterfront. Everyone was afraid of the bouncers at Keegan’s Bar. Sometimes foolhardy sailors under the influence of alcohol tried to tangle with them and after a severe beating returned to their ships wiser and more prudent men”. – An excerpt from a James Hadley Chase novel.
13. Are you really practicing lack of fear in your life? It needs tremendous guts.
Ans: It’s not guts, Vaishak. You just need understanding. I have always had it ever since I took a decision in life to understand rather than to react. The problem with most is that to understand. They reflect when they need to absorb.
14. What do you mean that Satyendra is nothing but a thought?
Ans: “When someone influences you heavily he stays in your head as a permanent thought. Even if he as a person is not there, his thoughts will keep motivating you”. – Crazy Kiran.
15. “We don’t know what we don’t know”. – Richard Williams
Ans: “We know what we think we know”. – RGV
16. To me the greatest philosophy is “whatever makes you happy”.
Ans: True, except that you should take care that whatever makes you happy should not have been programmed into you.
17. Greatness is not a bead. It’s a garland of beads.
Ans: I would say it’s a chain of beads.
18. Why would you want to be a villain in Fountainhead rather than as a hero like Howard Roark?
Ans: To be a villain with the understanding of a hero is the best way to have the cake and eat it too.
19. Which do you prefer between Stanley Kubricks “Lolita” and Adrian Lyne’s “Lolita”?
Ans: Stanley Kubrick’s version is not a patch on Adriane’s.
20. “If most people said what’s on their minds, they’d be speechless”. – Mad magazine.
Ans: Suuuuuuuuuperrrrb.
21. Just by dismissing my comments and ridiculing me does not prove a point and you owe me some respect.
Ans: Teja, it might surprise you but the fact is that I have seen more books on philosophy between 1980 to 1984 (that is when me and Satyendra were in college) than what I saw for the rest of my life. These I saw in our College library and in Satyendra’s room. None of the students at College used to touch or look at them in the racks except Satyendra. I used to dabble with them once in a while because of my association and proximity with Satyendra.
Satyendra’s existence is important to me and not necessarily for anyone else. He has chosen to live his life within himself and I respect his privacy. But because I for some wrong or right reasons brought him out onto a public platform I just felt an urge to protect him and hence I got irritated with you.
I sincerely apologize for going overboard in ridiculing you. Sorry!